"White Girl" gets an awakening to racial tension in SoCal liberal arts school

http://www.dailynews.com ^ | 06/26/2013 | Josephine Fenster

[BBell]

For seven years of my life, from sixth grade to twelfth grade at primarily black and Latino schools in Las Vegas, I was the White Girl. In sixth grade, my classmates assumed I came from money and were shocked to learn that I, too, took the bus to school. In basketball, I was always forgiven for my terrible dribbling, and, when I sank a shot, I was seen as impressive. My friends never laughed at me for being behind on the newest slang, and they often volunteered definitions for words I didn't yet know-"Not-White Girl Words," as we called them.

In my high school, everyone was aware of race, but no one was afraid of it. We joked about it constantly. When there was a dance circle, I wasn't expected to join it-white girls can't dance.

We all told Hector, a Catholic Mexican, that we knew he had to have at least ten siblings. If my half-black friend Carl rolled up in a shiny new car, we all joked that he must have jacked it. With our discussions and jokes, we played with stereotypes and made them non-scary. School administrators even planned an assembly for my class to talk about our inappropriate jokes, but then they decided it was okay and cancelled the event.

In 2010, I moved to Los Angeles and to college. My campus was (and is) diverse, but I was no longer the White Girl. Sometimes, frankly, I didn't even feel especially white. A lot of my fellow white girls were doing yoga and wearing designer jeans. I wasn't. I was used to people caring more about their shoes than the rest of their outfit.

My college, Occidental, is progressive. It prides itself on ethnic and cultural diversity. I'm proud to be a student here. But gone is

[BBell]

I can relate to this. My kids attend heavily black schools with a smaller group of Asians. My daughter has a friend who looks and talks like Urkel. He is a smart kid and he wears hearing aids and has a protective Momma. My daughter jokes that she is blacker then he is. My daughter tells me they always joke about racial stereo types. Asians are all supposed to be smart. White's can't dance or play BBall. All blacks are BBall players and dance artist and not to bright and so on. It's all part of the fun of High School kids joking about stereo types. My son knows all the latest slang and style. He does not talk ghetto but I still call him a whigger.

[Uncle Miltie]

Occidental is one of the places 0bambi attended and didn’t have to perform.

[Regulator]

And I have a good friend who grew up in Long Beach and was bussed into Wilmington in the ‘70s.

He’s so traumatized by that he moved out of the country.

Basically, his parents generation turned him into a punching bag for hate filled non-whites with their “can’t we all just get along” social engineering.

It’s true that people who grow up together can in many ways get beyond old divisions. But it’s a lot easier for a white female. Rather different if you’re the Evil White Cracker Male, to use a Trayvonism.

[cherry]

"Occidental is one of the places 0bambi attended and didn’t have to perform."

not surprised.....always thought that he had "performance" issues....

[Clemenza]

Anu White parent who sends their child to a school largely populated by blacks is committing child abuse. I vomit when I see wiggas or any other whites enjoying gangsta rap.

[dfwgator]

Or lily white people flashing gang signs in pictures.

[Clemenza]

LOL!

[dfwgator]

That one really sticks in my craw.

[BenLurkin]

I know exactly what she is talking about.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I can relate to this. My kids attend heavily black schools with a smaller group of Asians.***

I can relate but for a different reason. I went to Intermountain Rockies schools with Latinos, blacks, Navajos and lots of white oilfield kids. We mostly got along well as we were all in it together.

Then my dad pulled us out and we ended up in the 1950s Ozarks. Talk about culture shock!

Most of the kids (all white) in class were kin to everyone else. Most were dirt poor. Those with money lorded it over the others. Some had never been more than 25 miles away from home. They all looked at us as if we had our hand in their pocket.

Needless to say, we found ourselves at the bottom of the social structure.

When Little Rock schools blew up we learned a new word we had never known. Segregation. We could not comprehend it.

When we went back to the oil fields we found ourselves again accepted in all the schools.

Then back to the Ozarks where we ended up at the bottom again.

Unfortunately I am still here.

[BBell]

It depends on how the school is run. Where I live the parish school boards are very strict when it comes to discipline. They don’t take any crap and will have kids arrested and charged in a heart beat. Remember Jena High in LaSalle Parish? Those kids were arrested immediately and severe charges were leveled against them by a prosecutor who was black. Then Jessie Al and the rest of the clowns rolled into town and created an issue where there wasn’t one.

[jocon307]

I am NOT a Howard Stern fan, but he has talked many times about how his liberal, Jewish parents would NOT move from Roosevelt (I think) Long Island, NY in the 60s and 70s when all the rest of the whites were fleeing.

It made his life hellish and no he is not joking.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Hey, don’t forget me! I’ll be your friend. ;)

[jocon307]

That’s a nicely written piece, although some of the details elude me, like the stuff about the shoes. I suppose I could ask my daughter, although at 26 she may already be too old to explain.

I wish our gentle authoress luck and I hope she finds her way away from humorless leftists before she becomes one of that borg.

Thanks for posting this.

[BBell]

[Nowhere Man]

Anu White parent who sends their child to a school largely populated by blacks is committing child abuse. I vomit when I see wiggas or any other whites enjoying gangsta rap.

One thing that always bugged me is that Black music has really devolved from the beautiful Do-Wop of the 1950's, the sensational soul of the 1960's and 1970's, the disco of the 1970's and the cool songs of the 1980's. I think with few exceptions, rap and hip-hop, took music back a great deal.

[BBell]

RAP is an acronym for regressive African poetry. I love the oldies and when my son is riding with me I always comment that the song playing was made when black people made good music. I have yet to find a young black kid who has heard of Sam Cooke. Unbelievable. The platters, drifters, four tops,Stevie Wonder, The coasters, the shirelles, the dixie cups, fats domino, little richard,CHUCK BERRY, leadbelly, I could go on for awhile. The music was great and to think it evolved into the garbage that is popular now. Talk about regression.

[RegulatorCountry]

I went to a county high school that was somewhat ill-considered as far as the district. It was created to surmount historic segregation, and that it did. However, the reality was nearly half of the student body being black from the western reaches of the plantation belt, their forebears never having left after the war, and the other almost-half being from a sundown town all-white area. It was ugly. The great grandchildren of former slaves and the great grandchildren of their former owners got on one heck of a lot better than did the racist white trash with anybody else. The worst of them all were the very obviously mixed race people, historically so, who belonged to no group but their own, virulently anti-black as if they had something to prove. And they did, in their own minds at least. Then there were the very fair-skinned black folks, who were just as biased toward darker black folks, just in a different way. Very biting, but not the same. It was quite an education in human nature. People are at base very tribal, whether this is recognized or not by a given individual in question. I have few delusions in this regard.

[viaveritasvita]

For you (thanks for the memories):

Sam Cooke, You Send Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX6QlnlMqjE

Crystals, Da doo ron ron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqgtsai2aKY

Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Dancin in the Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhbM2mqhCQ

Temptations, Just My Imagination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFwgGvMEgw

Dionne Warwick, Walk on By
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0EA7a5LqDg

Dinah Washington, Since I Fell For You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RhWkK0lODE

[viaveritasvita]

Roberta Flack, The First Time Ever I saw Your Face
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOFrGbuUqnQ

Note to self: Never forget